By honing the bearing surfaces of cylinder blocks (which can be cast iron or which can be constructed of other materials such as high performance ceramics or an aluminum alloy with a coating), a constant lubrication of the piston/cylinder sliding combination, as well as a low coefficient of friction, re achieved. Of course, in this case--depending on the surface structure present--a high breaking-in wear and increased oil consumption during the breaking-in time compared to the later operating time are allowed for.
A method of the initially described type has been known from DE 30 29 215 A1. In the known method, it is given that the cylinder inner walls have a fine grooving with slot-type grooves which are produced by prior machine-processing of the cylinder inner walls. The elevated areas between the slot-type grooves are subsequently processed by honing such that flat, non-hardened, cylindrical cylinder wall surface parts are obtained there. Then the bottom areas of the slot-type grooves lying between the honed elevations are treated with laser beams or electron beams so that martensitically hardened zones are produced (only) there. Since laser beams are used in the known method, the CO.sub.2 laser conventional at that time was obviously used, with which martensitically hardened, wear-reducing tracks up to one mm deep should be obtained by transformation hardening without melting the surface.